George Taylor (Oregon State University)

George Taylor is a faculty member at Oregon State University's College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.[1] He sometimes goes by the title of "State Climatologist for Oregon," though that title was created by the university and Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski said of Taylor, "He is not the state of Oregon's climatologist."[2][3] Taylor retired as manager of the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University in May 2008. [4]

Global Warming Skeptic

Taylor is a climate change skeptic who "believes there are signs of global warming, but that burning fossil fuels aren't necessarily to blame. Natural changes have a bigger influence, and the world has been warmer in the past."[6] In 2005, Taylor told Willamette Week, "Look, it's not that complicated. ... It's not clear that we are seeing unprecedented warming, and it's definitely untrue that any warming trend can be assigned to human activities. Natural variations in climate are much more significant than any human activities."[7]

Taylor "has written more than 200 research papers, plus several articles for industry-funded websites Tech Central Station and CO2 Science. He also has written two books, The Climate of Oregon and The Oregon Weather Book, both published by Oregon State University Press in 1999. The former disputes the notion that climate change is happening." Tech Central Station, which used to be run by the DCI Group lobbying firm and funded by corporations including ExxonMobil, paid Taylor for his writing.[7]

"Like other global-warming deniers, Taylor has never submitted his opinion for peer review by actual climate scientists because those scientists would reject his ideas out of hand," said Chris Hagerbaumer of the Oregon Environmental Council.[7]

↑Jeff Wright, "Weather aficionado will leave his post for new challenges: George Taylor says his departure is unrelated to doubts he has shared about global warming," The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon), February 22, 2008.